There are esoteric teachings stating that after death, there is something that–to a greater and lesser degree, depending on the person–may survive for a while. It is a kind of energy-form, possibly in plasma form, that is held in shape by electromagnetic fields, or some other particle-theory-based field. It has some self awareness. It disintegrates, on the death of its biological host, and fragments of it can be consumed by other more permanent, more complex energy forms, which use it as fuel. It’s a naturalistic view, not a supernatural one. These are all creations of the universe, somehow spun off by evolution.
Anyway, one’s actual selfhood–according to the teaching–usually disintegrates *if* one hasn’t been conscious enough in life. Literally conscious, not, like ‘politically conscious’ or something. Most of us live our lives semiconscious. If one has been actively moving in the direction of consciousness, in the course of our human-biology life, a natural process takes place, rather like a seed sprouting, leading to the creation of a more permanent self-aware energy form which has a kind of subtle biology and has senses and memory. It can resist the predators, in the afterlife, just as a man in the wilderness can resist being eaten by a wolf or lion, through his intelligent evasion or self-defense. This entity then cooperates with others of its kind, in a kind of community, which works to try to cultivate more sturdily conscious forms from the cellular / genetic creatures found where humans live, in the substrate biology of our planet.
This is an actual teaching–I’m not making it up. Just because someone teaches it, somewhere (and has taught it for at least 2500 years), doesn’t mean it’s true.